Pleistocene Periglacial Topography in Southern Africa

Abstract

Studies in the south-eastern part of the Drakensberg mountains and the Basutoland uplands, above the 6,000 ft. (1,830 m.) level, of Southern Africa have yielded evidence for a periglacial regime during the Pleistocene. The limited earlier work in Southern Africa suggested that the Pleistocene climate was too dry for glaciation to have occurred, but the existence of oversteepened slopes, solifluction slumps and cirques is indicative of a periglacial environment. There is some correlation between the respective altitudes and latitudes of these periglacial features.